A concluding free-verse poem celebrating the benefits of fair trade and environmental consciousness will resonate more with...
Isabella, an aspiring writer and daughter of rose-farm workers in Ecuador, relates the story of her family’s livelihood.
Isabella is very excited because her school will be commemorating “Pachamama” (Mother Earth) with a special assembly that will include original stories and poems. The students begin their assignment, and the teacher is impressed with Isabella’s introduction about Ecuador’s continual sunshine, which helps the flowers grow so well. Isabella then recounts a time when her parents worked in a rose farm that used insecticides that caused illness and strong headaches, especially for her mother. Healthier and happier days occurred when her parents began work in a new rose farm that practices fair trade and grows roses organically. Isabella’s writing continues with basic section headings to explain the concept of fair trade, how the roses are sold around the world and why celebrating Ecuador’s Pachamama is important. Her composition parallels her overall narration that's distinguished by a standard typeface opposite the child-oriented look of her written story. Colorful folk-art–style drawings in marker and gouache add an authenticity to this South American tale. Unfortunately, the important message about environmental concerns and equitable working conditions dominates, leaving little story for children to latch onto.
A concluding free-verse poem celebrating the benefits of fair trade and environmental consciousness will resonate more with readers than the mostly instructive text. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: June 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-88010-731-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Steiner Books
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
For a new highlight in the annals of Good Cooperation, the creators of Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude (2005) reprise the winning premise and bring back much of the original cast. Two young narrators paired for a storytelling exercise have very different ideas of how the story should go: For him, there’s nothing finer than a mightily thewed superhero king—portrayed by Goto in suitably pulp-comics fashion astride a flying motorcycle outfitted with missile tubes—but she posits a flaxen-tressed Queen named Tenderheart (depicted with airy delicacy by Heyer) who marries “some guy, I forget his name” and decides to have a baby. Wrestling their plot back and forth, the two youngsters ultimately end up with superbaby riding a chopper of his own (the missiles replaced by a brace of formula bottles), rescuing his royal parents from a cyclops and flying them back home on a robot unicorn to a happily-ever-after. The artistic mashup illustrates the value of collaborative effort as hilariously as does the tumultuous tale. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8027-2164-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
A laughing new librarian with "eyelashes as long as bird feathers" arrives at the creaky, almost-100-year-old library in Lockhart, Texas, and, to her surprise, the children do not use it because they say it's for grown-ups! Though RoseAleta buys new books and magazines, makes sure the library is buzzing, even leads a Christmas parade through the town square with a sign ("Come to the library!"), the children do not visit. She decides to create a space just for them, but nobody will contribute to the $20,000 required for the new space. "We need more than a bake sale," she says, and without further ado, she decides to camp out on the library's roof until the money is raised. Her meals are delivered via the electric company's bucket, and she even weathers a storm in her little tent, but the town rallies and the money is raised. Energetic, if slickly unsubtle drawings match the text and take advantage of the rooftop perspective with two vertically oriented double-page spreads of RoseAleta ascending and descending. Based on a true story, this will be popular with librarians and their readers. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8075-4512-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
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